TresSugar

The Green Monster: 8 Acts of Eco Extremism

CitizenSugar — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:30:47 -0700

Yesterday the crying-hippies video resurfaced on the ever-recycling Internet. (Well worth a watch!) Sobbing at the base of a North Carolinian forest, members of radical environmental group Earth First! cried for rocks and trees and pesky weeds that (they insist) are as alive as your typing fingertips. A young man cried until he wanted to scream. So he did.

But that's child's play! Environmentalists - extreme environmentalists - have more than tears and tree houses to show demanding Mother Earth. What does it take to go from eco friendly to eco terror? Check out my eight environmental no-nos, or do-dos (depending on your goal).

Arson. Particularly setting new housing developments, car lots, and SUVs ablaze. Another? Horse slaughterhouses. Neigh!
Not breeding because, obviously, Earth is better off without people.
Harassing, sabotaging, and sinking whaling ships is as old as my first recycling bin.
Poisoning bottles of POM Wonderful juice to protest animal testing. Guess it won't make you immortal after all!

To see four other acts of eco insanity, read more.

Raiding zoos and aquariums to kidnap animals.
Endangering loggers and spiking trees to discourage logging.
Forcing entry, harassing, and attacking university professors involved in animal research. Masks are optional but preferred.
And bombs - a tried and true method of dissent. Even the worst bomb will get attention!

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Front Page: Tree-Sitters Climb Down, Quake Shakes Iran, More Calling Suicide Hotline, US Deficit at $438 Billion

CitizenSugar — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 07:00:28 -0700

Tree-Sitters Climb Down:
After a 21-month occupation, four remaining tree-sitters in an oak grove on the UC Berkeley campus, climbed down and into police custody. School officials had cut off food and water supplies Monday and were prepared to remove the activists using force. The tree-sitters were trying to stop the construction of a $125 million sports center which threatened 42 trees on campus.

Quake Shakes Iran:
A 6.1 magnitude earthquake has hit southern Iran near the site of a large Iranian oil refinery, injuring 22 and killing three. Officials fear the quake damaged older parts in the refinery. Iran is the world's fourth largest oil exporter, the refinery struck processes 320,000 barrels a day.

More Calling Suicide Hotline:
More Americans are calling the government's suicide hotline, 47,000 of them in the last month alone. The line receives a 10 percent increase every month, which the staff attributes to more people knowing about it, than an increase in the suicidal. In 2005, the last year of the data, there were more than 32,600 suicide deaths.
US Deficit at $438 Billion:
The US budget deficit is set to reach $438 billion in 2009 according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. The figure doesn't take into account government costs associated with taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The previous record for deficit was $413 billion in 2004. Last year's deficit was $161 billion.

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Part II: Interview With Tom Sheridan, Lobbyist to the Stars

CitizenSugar — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:00:49 -0700

Here's the continuation of our interview with Tom Sheridan, the lobbyist who works with Bono on his ONE campaign to end global poverty. Liberty took in a ONE campaign panel with Ben Affleck, Madeleine Albright, and Tom Daschle at the convention yesterday - more details on that event soon! Here's the continuation of our conversation with Tom:

Who else do you work with?

Julia Ormond is another great example, she's a client of ours who is doing work on human trafficking and slavery, and speaking out before anyone was really talking about. She wasn't only talking about it, but she was immersed, was deeply immersed in the substance of it. You know, what are the major policy issues that need to be launched in order to track people, things like a universal birth certificate. She was on top of that stuff before anyone really wrote about this.

What makes a celebrity seek you out?

To see his answer and more, read more.

What we look for and what we really love working with are celebrities who are about those two Cs. We're not your usual K Street lobbying firm. We represent almost only not-for-profits and are about taking those tough issues into the Washington environment. We're a little off the beaten path, so for people like Bono and Julia Ormond to find us, they really have to be committed in a much deeper sense. Bono doesn't need anyone to open a door for him, he's perfectly capable of opening his own doors - and he'll tell you that - that is not the hard part of my job with him. The hard part is how will we ask for what we want when we go in, how will we defend what we asked for last time, and why are we defending a taxpayer investment in a place called Africa and for a disease called AIDS. He's got to have real answers for those questions and thoughtful policymakers ask those questions. So my job is to make sure he is always well-positioned in the playing field and very well informed.

How does he become the perfect advocate for ONE?

To his credit, he gets on an airplane and he goes to Africa and gets on the ground so that he can say to people, "Look I just came from there and there's a village in Uganda where they've cut their maternal transmission of HIV rate from 70 percent to 10. He can speak to it with the level of passion that you can only have if you seen it and felt it. A good actor I guess can put on any emotion, but there's another whole dimension when it doesn't come from a place of craft.

We'll be unpacking more tidbits from Tom soon. Stay tuned!

Meet a Celebrity Lobbyist Committed to Star-Powered Activism

CitizenSugar — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:45:08 -0700

Parked in the intersection of politics and pop culture is the celebrity activist. There all kinds of ways celebrities get involved in causes from serving on boards to inspiring laws on Capitol Hill, and Tom Sheridan knows how to harness that fame and make the issue the real star. A lobbyist based in DC, he represents Bono and his work on the ONE campaign against global poverty. We sat down with him this week ahead of the big ONE event Kanye is headlining to benefit the organization here at the convention, and we couldn't have been more impressed. Tom Sheridan is using the intersection of fame and charity to inspire real change and a legion of committed issue advocates.

Can celebrities distract from an issue or a message? What are the hallmarks of a happy marriage between celebrity and activism?

It really comes down to two Cs. One is commitment and the other is credibility. I think if we go with alliteration and add in celebrity, I think that is where people will discern the difference between a celebrity using an issue to distract and/or promote themselves. There may be a fair trade in that but it doesn't always sustain a cause, and it doesn't get to the level of a policy change that we look for celebrities to engage in.

Well, we see celebrities speaking out on issues all the time. Is that enough to motivate change?

To see his answer, read more.

We're not interested in a 15-minute hearing on Capitol Hill with some press, that's not that difficult to achieve frankly, and you don't actually need any talent from people like me to achieve that. The question then becomes, "what for?" And that's where commitment and credibility become really important factors. Are they willing to sustain their interest in this, and what does that sustaining interest mean, and how much time does that take?

How much time does it take, and how does that help a cause?

Celebrities work, and like Bono, he's got a rather significant day job. Bono was at the convention four years ago [for ONE] and he's not here this year because he's recording an album, you know that's the day job, but the fact remains four years later he's still involved. It's very much taking the cult of ONE and not doing the predictable stuff with it that gives him both long-term commitment because he has great motivation to stay in this for a long time, and has been in it for a long time. I've been working with him for almost eight years. He's been at this for a long time and there's no one out there that doesn't believe that he's not only committed to it but that he's incredibly credible on the topic.

To see who else Tom Sheridan works with and how committed celebs inspire real change, check out part two of our interview with him later this week!

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Caring About Social Security, Not Wasted on the Young

LibertySugar — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:00:03 -0700

Think you don't have to worry about Social Security until you have one of those license plate thingies that says, "My Other Car Is a Golf Cart?" Not so according to Students For Saving Social Security. They're on a mission to make young people care about retirement, or at least their paychecks. Although nonpartisan, the grassroots group of college students, advocates a typically conservative solution - private ownership of Social Security accounts.

The "S4" website explains: "our very first paychecks will be taxed from a system that cannot fulfill its promises to us." These students believe it is unacceptable that politicians ignore the opinions and welfare of young Americans when discussing Social Security reform. To see what the recommend, read more.

The students want the government to give young people ownership of their money, by allowing Americans to decide for themselves how to invest their Social Security funds. But, what if they invest poorly? Will they be out of luck with no retirement funds? Perhaps the next generation of Americans will be out of luck anyways, as the system is headed for bankruptcy.

Today, the government's yearly assessment of Social Security determined that resources will be depleted by 2041 and that the Medicare trust fund, which pays for hospital benefits, will be empty by 2019. Do you have any expectation of receiving Social Security income when you retire?

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Where I'm Clicking Now: act.ivi.st

LibertySugar — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:30 -0700

Need help reforming all your Republican friends? Check out act.ivi.st - a tool for grassroots - which computes the percentage break down of 2004 Kerry and Bush support, and then suggests ways you can further the progressive agenda in your area based on those results.

There is also a database of "plain-talk talking points for dinner table conversations and persuasive messaging." It's still in its beta form, so depending where you live, there may be fewer results. But, no need to worry, you can add your own propaganda to be included in the talking points.

Women Worry That Obama Is Throwing Them Under the Bus

TresSugar — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:42:32 -0800

Back in January, feminist magazine Ms. hailed Barack Obama as a super feminist. But the president's recent tepid response to protecting abortion rights might mean that the love affair with Obama is about to end for many women. Over at the Daily Beast, women's rights activist Amy Siskind argues that the Stupak amendment, which treats women's rights as a political bargaining chip that can be traded for healthcare reform, is just one more example of how Obama couldn't care less about women . . . except when he's trying to win their votes of course. She writes:

He appointed fewer women into his cabinet than President Bill Clinton. He surrounded himself with czars, more than 90 percent of whom are male. He appointed Larry Summers, of "girls are inferior in math and science" fame, to a key economic post. He played basketball, golfed and fished with men and men only. He had beers with Skip Gates, but ignored it when Rihanna was almost strangled to death. And so on.

Of course it's not all bad. Ms. released a report chronicling the giant strides Obama made for women during his first 100 days in office. These actions included: signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, instituting a new ambassador-at-large for global women's issues, establishing the White House Council on Women and Girls, and overturning the "global gag rule" in order to re-fund global family planning organizations.

Has the Obama administration let you down when it comes to women's rights?

Gay Activists Ready to Fight DADT and Wait For Prop 8 Repeal

TresSugar — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:00:00 -0700

From fighting for the right to serve in the military to pushing for the right to marry their partners, gay Americans face battles for equality on many fronts. It appears that progress is about to be made toward the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, while the fight for marriage equality in California is set to sit on the back burner for some time.

This Fall, the Senate will hold hearings on Don't Ask, Don't Tell. It's the first time since 1993 that lawmakers will take up the policy that prevents openly gay people from serving in the military. NY Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, whose legislation prompted the hearings, points out that 265 men and women have been dismissed from the military under the policy since President Obama took office. According to polls, 69 percent of Americans think gays should be allowed to serve.

In California, backers of same-sex marriage are thinking about waiting until at least 2012 to campaign to overturn Proposition 8. Major gay rights activists believe that the only thing worse than losing the fight for marriage equality in 2008 would be losing in 2010, and based on current poll numbers, a loss could be very likely.

So what's the moral of this story? It appears that the fate of gay rights is closely tied to poll numbers.

"Men's Rights" Groups Say Feminist Society Oppresses Men

TresSugar — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

We've all heard of women's rights activists, but are you familiar with men's rights activists? MRAs are men who believe that the emancipation of women and the emergence of feminism has led to the oppression of men. (Because, you know, it can't be a win-win proposition!)

Double X provided an extensive exploration of a movement that is trying to appear more mainstream. Here are some MRA claims:

False domestic abuse allegations are rampant.
A feminist-run court system wrongly separates innocent fathers from children.
Battered-women shelters scam taxpayers by transferring federal money to feminists.
Domestic violence laws help mail-order brides fraudulently get green cards.
Men are unrecognized victims of domestic violence themselves.

According to Double X, there's evidence that MRAs have greatly exaggerated many of their concerns about custody and domestic violence. For example, abuse accusations don't automatically win custody for mothers, and often incidents these men count as violence against men are really cases of self-defense. If you think this form of activism sounds too out there to be taken seriously, know that MRAs have had some very real influence. In 2008, they claimed responsibility for helping block the passage of four domestic violence bills.

What do you make of MRAs?

Protesting the Weather: Climate Change Activists Storm Capitol

LibertySugar — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:01:03 -0800

Activists braved the cold and snow yesterday to participate in Capitol Climate Action Day. The day of civil disobedience focused on getting the capitol's power plant to ditch coal for natural gas. Participants cut off access to the plant's entrances and refused to leave when asked. The group followed action guidelines, which included a ban on violence and damage to property.

NASA's chief climate scientist Dr. James Hansen took some heat for encouraging the act of civil disobedience. The scientist, who claimed the Bush administration muzzled him, thinks:

We need to send a message to Congress and the president that we want them to take the actions that are needed to preserve climate for young people and future generations and all life on the planet.

DC's nonvoting congressperson Eleanor Holmes Norton also supports the cause. She says the plant has "poisoned untold numbers of people who live in the District of Columbia." Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asked the Architect of the Capitol, which oversees the plant, to switch it to natural gas. Maybe the protesters will get what they asked for.

To see more photos of the protest, read more.

View 9 Photos ›

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